Private Swim Lesson

Tonight I ended up having a private swimming lesson at the YMCA. There are usually four kids in my class but there was this thing called a "cluster" (that's what Mommy called it), and for a while they closed the pool. Then two hours before lessons they called and said the pool was open again, so Daddy took me. It was his turn.

I was the only student in my class to show up. Probably due to the "cluster" Mommy told me about. This meant I got my very own private lesson. Last week, my teacher had hurt her leg so this week I had a guy. His name was Kyle. He was really teaching my how to swim using strokes. I was swimming on my back without him holding me for a while. My other teacher never did that. I really really like Kyle. I hope I have him next week. I think I will... I hope I do....

Wow! That's PINK!

Tonight we started painting Lauren's room. She even got to help. Her room is two colors -- pink and green (fairytale pink and cool pool). The pink is on and tomorrow we will paint the green.

No garbage disposal?

I was talking to a couple of people at work today and the topic of garbage disposal's came up. You may remember my post from a few months ago about my missing having a garbage disposal.

I found out today that it's not recommended that people with septic systems have garbage disposals. Oh no!!!!

Ryan's room - painted

Tonight we put on the first colored paint. We started in Ryan's room and used Stonewall Jackson aka gray. It turned out really good and Ryan did a great job helping. Tomorrow we start Lauren's room.

Primed!

We spend the day applying the primer to the walls. We got two coats on everything except the master suite, laundry room and 1/2 bath. Those have one coat. We also need to get the bonus room and the wall leading up to the bonus room. It's coming a long though. Finally.

They finished hanging the drywall over the weekend. Today or tomorrow the finishers should start taping and mudding the drywall. The house is a mess inside though. I guess the people that hang the drywall don't have to clean up their mess. The amount of wasted drywall is insane too. We need to get a dumpster out there.

On another note, all of this should be exciting...seeing the rooms take shape, painting just being a couple of weeks away etc... The truth is, I'm overwhelmed, burnt out and the excitement of this just there anymore. People will say it should start going fast now. Well, nothing has gone smooth. It's just all taking forever. The realization that we may actually have to move again to an apartment for a couple of months prior to the house being done leaves me very sad. I just don't see everything being done by June 1. Which also means we would have to get our construction loan extended. Sometimes (ok a lot of times) I feel like this just wasn't meant to be. We should have just bought another house that was already built...or better yet we should have never left the house on Sunflower in Chatham.

Slow Progress...another issue

They made progress on the drywall. They should finish up tomorrow. The taping and finishing should then start sometime next week. Along with the brick and then siding.

When we went out tonight we had a pleasant surprise. They started leveling the lot. While doing that they guy noticed one of the septic pipes is cracked. We think that happened when the framers were out there. In talking to Jim though Mark found out that Illini Septic didn't complete the job. They still have work they need to do. Mike hired them and we paid the bill, but they didn't do everything they needed to. Mark will call them tomorrow to see if he can get them back out there to finish.

One day these issues will all be behind us, right?

Drywall? Insulation?

Well, when Mark went out to the house today he noticed that some of the drywall was down and another layer of insulation up. Not sure what all is going on. Maybe the drywall people started too early? I don't know. I just know I'm grouchy and tired of set backs!

Drywall!

They started hanging drywall on the ceiling today. We thought it was supposed to start next week, but we aren't complaining. Can't wait to go see the progress tomorrow.

Crazy day!

Today was a crazy day! I had to take Lauren to the dr. She has strep throat again. She had this in January and it's back. So, she's on Zythromax. I spent the afternoon working from home and taking care of her. Shortly after 3:00 someone emailed that the intranet was down. Turns out it was more than the intranet it was all web solutions. Fantastic! The load balancer died. They finally got it back up and running but it took a while and so I had to go pick up the Walnut flooring for the entry way that we paid for on Monday. There were five boxes that were about 8 ft each and weighed 90 lbs. No biggie. I grabbed Mark's truck and left him my car. Whoda thunk that we'd get a thunderstorm on February 23??? UGH! Luckily Mark got home around 15 min after we did because I could not lift the boxes.

On another note, they should have finished insulating today. We didn't make it out to the house so we'll have to make sure to go out tomorrow.

Ameren Update

Ameren called today. The acknowledged that the location of the transformer was their fault and they will fix it within 2 - 3 weeks, with no charge to us. While this is good news, it doesn't change the fact that I think the new neighbor is a jerk!

Insulation - Round 1

Today they started insulating. We are having blown insulation with the fiberglass stuff on top. This will give us an R factor of about 20. Tomorrow they are supposed to put the fiberglass stuff on and Friday we are scheduled for inspections. If all goes well, the drywall work will start Monday.

My most recent worry is the driveway by the garage. It's awful close to the property line. It will take some creative engineering so it's doesn't cross that line.

Ya know, I'll be glad when this is all over with. I just wanna move and put this nightmare behind me.

County Inspections - Take two

Everything except the fireplace passed with flying colors. We probably need a new fireplace guy. The insulation can proceed without that though so, game on!

Seriously? He cut down one of our trees?!?!

We went out to the house tonight to unload backer board for the ceramic tile. While out there we noticed the that neighbor put up the string like Ameren asked him to, showing that the transformer is on his property. Well, HALF of the transformer is on his property. HALF, not all! In addition to that the jerk cut down one of our trees so that he was able to line up the string like he wanted.

All I can say is WOW! We haven't even moved in yet. This guy has some serious issues. I've met him once, he's never introduced himself to Mark at all. I only met him because his son was playing with Ryan and they went into the house and I had to go get Ryan. There is a decent amount of land between the two houses and really it's all wooded between the two allowing for privacy. I don't think we'll probably ever see them...at least that's my hope.

I'm trying to stay positive about the situation. This is how I see it...he wanted to hunt on our land. He didn't think anyone would buy it. He was wrong. It's in the country. Someone was eventually going to buy it. And he had every opportunity to buy the land himself and leave it undeveloped so he had more room to hunt. No matter what he does, we are moving there and that land now has a house on it. If we don't live there, someone else would buy it in an instant now that there is a house on it and it's so pretty back there. He has two options (1) grow up and deal with it or (2) move! The choice is his. I have a feeling neither will happen though. He needs to come to the realization that no matter what there is a house next to him now and it will always be that way.

More drama -- The transformer

I thought we were over most of the issues with the building stuff...I mean we still have a ways to go, but the Mike stuff is behind us and everything.

Now more drama. The guy that lives in the brown house next to where we are building (not the people who keep a bunch of crap in their yard, but the other guy) called Ameren and complained because he's claiming the transformer is on his property. That has been out there since November and he's just now complaining about it. If it is on his property, it's BARELY on the property. We don't think it is and we certainly didn't deliberately put it there -- well Ameren is the one that installed it. We decided to buy that property to moved get away from neighbors. Yeah, there are two and they are a little closer than ideal, but it's better than a subdivision, or at least we were hoping that. This is just freakin' unbelievable. What is wrong with people? That guy lives on over four acres. What difference does a couple of inches make. He's going to be an asshole of a neighbor if he's going to start complaining about that stuff. You can't even see it from his house. This guy just moved in to that place in April or May. My guess is he was planning to use what is now our property for hunting and stuff, even though he didn't own it. We bought it, are building a house and it just got in the way of what he thought he had. He had every opportunity to buy it himself...then he could have left it undeveloped and had his woods.

County Inspections

The inspectors for electric, mechanic and plumbing were out today. They found little things, but it's enough to set everything back a week with insulation.

One thing that I found funny was the electrical inspector is making us change the doorbell wire. We put in actual doorbell wire that is located next to the doorbells at Lowes. He wants insulated wire. Sounds pretty trivial, but under the circumstances, we aren't complaining. Just scratching our heads. The other thing missing was a smoke detector in the basement.

As far as plumbing goes, everything was fine but he cut into a floor joist so that needs repaired. And then the fireplace wasn't complete. They will be back out to inspect on Monday the 21st.

Anxiety...

There are four of us living in 900 square feet. Saying things are difficult is an understatement. The kids don't have as much room to play, we have on closet, Mark and I use the living room as our bedroom and the dining room is the living room. The room that we are using for the living room doesn't have any windows. That stinks because this house is so dark and with the limited windows, we haven't been able to really enjoy looking at the snow we've had. Yes, we could go out and play in it, but I love to watch it snow.

We are also missing so many things since we have so much stuff in storage. I miss my workouts, doing my scrap booking of Ryan's school work having my own space. It's just been a challenge.

Despite all of the things mentioned above, my anxiety is down drastically. Once we got rid of the former contractor my stress level decreased like you would not believe. I recently realized, too, exactly how much anxiety our old neighborhood was causing me. Now, don't get me wrong. I loved living next to Dave and De. They were great neighbors. Everyone else on the block, with the exception of a couple of families were so nice too. I just had an incredible amount of stress and anxiety while there. I never felt like the house was mine. I never felt like my yard was mine. I felt like I was always being watched and talked about. I hated it. I prayed for rain and bad weather so that people wouldn't be outside. Thank goodness we only lived there two years. That was a big reason for us selling the house and moving though. I just couldn't live in fear and worry anymore.

Never in a million years did I think living in a subdivision like that would cause me so much stress. Of course, now I'm terrified of living in a subdivision again...good thing we are moving to the country on two acres.

Electric is done!

The electrical is done! Tomorrow we will call to arrange for the inspection and then hopefully the week of the 14th insulation can go in!

Plumbing inspection

Today the plumbing inspector came out to inspect the rough-in plumbing. This needs to be done prior to insulation and drywall. Everything checked out a-ok. The only thing we are waiting on now is to finish up the electrical. Then it can be inspected. Once that's done, then it's time to insulate.

We are FREE!

Today was a day I never thought would come. Our attorney had the Section 35 letter ready to be sent to the former contractor's girlfriend, since she is the one that put the lien on the property since the contractor put all bills in her name. When she was served the Section 34 letter she failed to enforce the lien by filing suit, which makes the lien null and void. BUT she also needs to remove the lien. If she doesn't, we file the Section 25 which allows us to file suit for $2,500 plus legal fees, court cost and get a court order to have the lien removed.

Let me start by saying, we took a huge hit with the former contractor. At the same time, we really just want to put the situation behind us and not have to deal with him/them anymore. I really wanted the lien to just be removed. Well, the attorney had me go to the recorders office over lunch today and I was in total shock. On Thursday January 20th, she released the lien. WOOOO HOOOO!!!! This is the most exciting day I've had in a LONG time. Free at last!

We have windows!

We finally have windows. The crew finished the interior framing today and also started putting in the windows. They play to finish Monday. It's been a long time coming. I'm so thankful they are in. You never know what this winter weather will do.

The electrical inspector also met Mark out at the house today. Since Mark and Dad are wiring the house, the inspector wanted to meet with Mark to make sure everything they are doing is good and they are on the right track. The meeting went well and they will start wiring this weekend.

Update on Windows

Today the windows were supposed to go in. As with everything else, they did not go as planned. We got about 3 inches of snow and I though maybe that was why. It had been blowing and stuff so I thought maybe the weather held them back. I called the builder to see if they would go in this week so they could wire the house next week. He told me the sliding glass doors just came in today and he'd like to have the crew install everything at once. He has the windows scheduled to be delivered on go in on Friday. This was very frustrating. I'm having one of those weeks where I'm just at my wits end. I'm ready to see progress on the house. I'm so tired of seeing it in the same state.

On a positive note, Reynolds Well Drilling called and they feel very good about the amount of water flow we have. We are getting 1.6 GPM. Seems a bit low to me, but I think it's probably good for the area.

Let's get up-to-date - construction progress

Progress has been slow. We've had a very snowy and wet late fall & winter. We were finally able to get a roof and shingles on. Last Tuesday (December 28), our windows from RP lumber came in. We ended up getting what we originally wanted. Andersen 200 series, clay on the outside with grids and wooden on the inside, painted white. Due to the trouble we had with the former builder, RP gave us those windows at about 25% off.

This week, if weather permits, the windows and doors will be installs. This is HUGE. This will allow is to get the electrical and plumbing done and the heating and cooling.

Weidner refrigeration has been out working on the geothermal and they have all of the duct work complete. They just need to drill the wells and bring in the furnace and finish up. I'm not sure how much time all of that will take.

I posted earlier that we finally have a well. The hope to finish up that work tomorrow. Things have been moving very slow simply because we've been waiting on windows to come in and now waiting on the framing crew. Hopefully things will start moving faster here in a couple of weeks. We are all a little cramped in this rental and we really want our new house.

Other odds and ends -- Mom and Dad asked what Mark and I wanted for Christmas. We are living in this little rental and we really don't have a lot of space and any kind of "hobby" gift, well there is just no time. I had an idea though and ran it past Mark. I really wanted a nice ceiling fan/light fixture for the great room. He agreed. Mom and Dad said that would be fine with them too. I went to Chicago for work a couple of weeks before Christmas and there was a Home Depot not far from my hotel. I went in to see if they had anything. They had the PERFECT fan/ceiling light and it was exactly what Mom said I could spend. So I picked it up. I can't wait to see how it looks in the finished room.

Lets get up to date - issues with former contractor

When I last updated this blog, they had begun framing the house and I had hand delivered a letter to our former contractor from our attorney. I'll get you up-to-date on both things.

The gist of the letter was to bring to his attention the framing errors and asking him to provide us with bills for the materials so we could pay them and then for him to leave the job and provide a lien waiver. The law also states that we had to give him a reasonable amount of time to return to the job site and if he failed to return, the "contract" would be terminated. The letter was delivered on the evening of November 11 (a Thursday). We gave him until 8:00 am, Tuesday November 16th to return to the job site and begin correcting his errors.

Well, the day after the letter was delivered he stormed into our lawyers office and refused to sign a lien waiver, said he planned to return to the job site and he was placing a lien on the property. Have I mentioned yet that this guy is a nut-job? So what did all of this mean? This meant we would need to just wait until Tuesday to see what happens. You guessed it. He didn't show. WHEW!!!! What a relief. I immediately got the new contractor on the phone and they were able to start the following day (my bday November 17th). You probably read about that in an earlier post.

Now, while we were thrilled that he was officially off of the job, we still had the issue of the outstanding bills and the lien on the property. After MUCH work on our end, we were finally able to pay for materials that were used on the house. The lien is still on the property, as of today, January 8th. It's for the windows. He ordered the wrong windows for the house and the wrong amount. On December 17th a Section 34 letter was delivered to the former builder. This gives him 30 days to enforce his lien (file suit against us), if he doesn't then the lien expires. This Friday, January 14, is the final day something can happen. We are just patiently waiting to see what happens.

Well, Well, Well...what have we here....A WELL!!!

Tuesday, Reynolds Well Drilling called and asked if they could start drilling the well this week. SURE! We've been ready to have this done for quite some time. This should have taken place prior to any construction starting, but this was yet once more thing our former contractor screwed up on.

They started drilling yesterday and hit a lot of rock. Fortunately, they knew this was going to happen and they were prepared for it. They made it down about 31 feet and needed to go for a larger truck to get through all of the rock. This morning we went out around 10:00 am and they told us they found water, but at this point they were not sure about the quantity. They would have a better idea about what were are looking at later in the day. We had a few errands to run so we left. About 3:00 we went back out and as we were walking up he said "You have a well!" How exciting! He was pleased with the quantity of water, which was a relief. He ended up drilling 40 feet. All in all, that's not a deep well, but he said he got the depth he wanted out of it. Where I'm originally from, just an hour north, the wells are much deeper 100 - 300 ft. I can't imagine having to pay for a well that deep!

I do have to mention on ironic thing that happened today. When we woke up a water main had broken out side of the rental home we are living in and created a huge hole in the road and water was everywhere. We just found that so ironic since they were drilling the well today too.